TIE Live Fire Exercise
Galactic Standard Time: 18:44:53 10 ABY (Outgoing transmission) Del Redlin says, "Okay, Ladies, Imperial High Command sees it fit for you to be on your toes. So show me what you did during the Coruscant campaign and everything will be just fine, commendations and all." (Outgoing transmission) Del Redlin says, "Mister Maxwell is in charge of this exersice and Crewman Mirden will assist with probe droids and other such distractions." Drake slips on his large helmet, connecting the air tubes to it. He lowers himself into the cockpit of his Interceptor and straps himself into his seat. He checks the controls, turning a few dials and making sure everything is good to go. Using the comm system he talks to his squad and the hangar bay controllers, "Delta Leader is good to go." He holds on, readying himself for release from the TIE rack. The fighter releases and he instantly zooms off and out of the bay, flying out into space. His flight-mates are already formed up along side him almost instantly after leaving the hangar bay. "Delta Squadron, form on me," Drake says, trying to get everyone ready for whatever the higher ups had in store for them. He responds to the Mara Jade, "Roger that, sir." "Understood." Delta 4's wing leader responds, following behind the Squad leader. Out into space. " Shortly following Delta one's exit from another Tie interceptor rockets from the hangar bay of the ESD Mara Jade "Gamma Wing, Form up on me. Delta Lead Gamma Squadron will be taking orders from you." Delta 3's wing leader chimes in, "Roger, forming on you Delta Leader." He and his wing follow as instructed. Clicking on over the units comlink, Crewman Mirden aboard the Mara Jade says, "We are all ready to go here. Commence when ready." He flicks off the comlink and checks on a few settings of the ship. He nods reassuringly to the crewman next to him as the first of the TIE's scream away from the bowels of the ship. Shar slips into her Fighter from above, in the Gantry, she easily settles into the seat, making sure all the proper tubes are connected and operating. "Gamma Two-One, Check." she says, the rest of her flight checking in to her personally. The Fighter shifts on the rack, almost 'dropped' from the Gantry as it heads out into space at dizzying speed, twirling on the Destroyer's horizontal Axis, it moves after Gamma One-One, the rest of the Fighters following suit quickly. Gamma III falls into position with the other other TIE Interceptors, "Delta Leader, Gamma 3-1 in position and awaiting further orders." The Interceptor slows to a stop and floats in space with the others. Delta 4-1, and the rest of that wing fall in behind Delta Leader. "Delta Leader, Delta 4-wing in position. Awaiting orders." Keeping a tight grip on the controls for his Interceptor, Drake maneuvers away from the Mara Jade for a bit, getting some distance before making a turn to come back and shoot down any of the probe droids and whatever 'other distractions' were. "Keep a sharp eye out and don't do anything stupid," he says over the comm, "This may be a training excersize, but we are doing this by the book." Flipping a few switches on the console, Mirden turns to the crewman on his right and says, "Get ready to deploy probe droids." The man nods to him and begins to flipping switches. He nods back to Mirden in an affirmative. On Mirden's display, the computer registers a dozen probe droids being launched from the main hangar bay, all of them shooting off in random patterns. He flicks on the unit-wide comlink band and says, "Probe droids are deployed, flying evasive maneuvers." His voice trails off as he flips off the comlink and continues to monitor the progress, keeping the ship steady and motionless in space. Gamma lead keeps a loose grip on the flight controls of the interceptor. The pilot manuevers his craft expertly behind Delta lead. "Roger that Delta Lead, Gamma Lead following your vapor trail." "I got them on my sensors now". Gamma - III Falls into formation with the other TIEs. "Alright boys, time to earn out Pay". With the click of a few buttons, Delta 3's actions reflect that of standard routine. He's done this time and time again. He flips the comlink on, "Roger, Delta 3 all systems go." His Interceptor maneuvers in a tight group with the rest of his wing as he jets through space. "There they are boys, Delta 3 wing, watch them." Pulling back on his controls, Drake pulls the ship upward, bringing it back into the direction of the Mara Jade and the newly deployed probe droids. He moves at full speed toward the nearest probe droid. Clicking the comm system with his tongue, he says, "Flights stick together, take one probe droid each. Take care of your wingmates." Even if this was just an excersize it was good practice to do things like normal, making sure your wingmates have your back and collaborating to destroy single targets. "Let's give them some realism, eh?" He asks with a jeer to the crewman next to him. The crewman nods silently at him again, a somewhat puzzled look on his face. Mirden looks back at the man with a scoff of disgust and slowly says, "Order the turbolasers to start putting some crossfire out." He speaks as if speaking to a child, simply and slowly. The man's face turns a shade pale of rose as he taps a few keystrokes on his panel in front of him. A bridge-wide speaker clicks on with the various affirmatives from the turbolaser batteries, and not a second later several turbolaser batteries start opening fire into the vacuum of space, putting out a deadly serious atmosphere of hostility into the exercise. Gamma Lead follows the orders of Delta lead "You heard him Gamma Squadron, check your wingmates take care of each other." the pilot flips a few swithches on his control panel and targets a probe droid. Gamma - III rolls to it's port side to evade an incoming turbolaser blast, "Keep your eyes open boys...things are heating up out there". Gamma III falls in behind Gamma Leader's TIE, "I'm with you Gamma Leader...watch that crossfire". Delta 4, "Delta 4-1 and wing following orders, Time to lock and load, boys." says as the four turn off to follow their own probe droid. "Give him no where to go, kids!" Bringing his Interceptor around, Delta 3 wingleader speaks over the comlink, "Alright, Delta 3 Wing, you heard him. Stick close and watch each other. We're in this togeth..." Just then the turbolaser open fire, bolts flying through space. "Well, this is interesting. Be on your toes boys. Follow my lead." "Add some ion fire to the mix, and make it plentiful. We can't kill anyone with that." He orders the Crewman next to him again, who does as he's told. After a moment of speaking into his headset, the distinct blue glow of ion fire is spit out from every possible ion cannon aboard the ESD, streaking out in random directions from the surface of the ship. Mirden leans back in his seat for a minute, admiring the deadly minefield of destruction he's set out for the pilots, not concerned at all for their safety. He leans forward again, squinting at the screen to check on the status of the probe droids. He smiles as he see's none of yet to be destroyed. "Watch that turbolaser fire, keep your distance from each other so you don't collide," Drake says, making sure everyone has room to maneuver. His three flightmates spread out around him, keeping their distance. He pulls up and down and side to side as he dodges the massive amount of turbolaser and ion cannon fire. The Mara Jade was definitely a marvel of engineering, but this wasn't the time to stare at it. He carefully avoids the capital weapons, heading at top speed toward the probe droid. His targetting sensors tell him he has a match and he pulls the trigger, letting lose the four fire-linked laser cannons on the poor relatively defenseless probe droid. Gamma lead pushes his throttle up to attack speed. As the quartet of interceptors close in on the probe droid they are attacking the pilot of gamma I uses the yaw pedals in his fighter to juke the fighter from side to side. "Stay on target Gamma's." the pilot of Gamma - I squints his eyes and beneath the dark helmet that he wears the pilot smiles as he squeezes the trigger. Four green lances of energy fly at the pilots target. Gamma 3, The four TIEs in Gamma III wing form up into a delta patern, "We've got ion fire coming from the port side...evasive action". The wing splits itno two seperate pairs and rolls off in opposite directions, "Alright boys, form up on my position...and watch that fire." The 4 interceptors reform the delta alignment and zero in on a probe droid, "Attack speed Gamma 3....I've got a probie in my sights." The four pilots of Delta-4, turn away from eachother dropping away from eachother as the Ion blasts scatter around them. Delta 4-1 turns up towards the droid- trying to force it to follow the rest of his squad. Without hesitation, Delta 3 and his wingmen spread as instructed. Their movements are smooth, all of this hard training is paying off. Independently, the various members of Delta 3 wing swoop and dodge as green and blue bolts flash past them. "Great job, keep focused men." The group of Interceptors scream as they fly toward the probe in their target sights. Delta 3 leader squeezes the controls sending a volley of fire at the droid. The bridge doors slide open with a hiss as the Captain of the vessel emerges into his domain, his bridge. He walks with purpose to the forward viewport, not giving attention to anything else in the room for a minute or so. "Mister Mirden, report. How well are our boys doing?" He turns to look at the crewman situation in his station, his eyes carefully examining each of the other crewmen around, even his Executive Officer was present, though silent as he allowed the crewmen to act on their own. Looking up to the Captain from his console, Crewman Mirden says, "12 probe droids flying evasive maneuvers, no kills yet. None of our TIE's hit from our heavy ion or turbolaser fire, sir!" He holds his hand to his headset as he receives a communication from the ion batteries: "Very good..." He mumbles into his headset, commending the weapons crew on their precision fire, but also to commend them for not killing anyone yet. It took some skill to lay down a volley of fire and to also avoid intentionally killing a target. He flips his headset frequency to the ion cannons now, declaring, "Ions, I want you to take out those TIE's, stop kidding around." He knows that a direct ion cannon hit, at worst, would simply render a ship derelict in space. As the probe droid he shot at explodes in a ball of fire, Drake pulls away, maneuvering toward the next droid. His flightmates turn sluggishly with him as they are still not totally accustomed to their new Squadron Leader's habits. As he approaches the next droid, Drake avoids another volley of Ion Cannon fire, doing his best to avoid it. He always did his best, always gave 110, never slacked off. With a fluid motion, Delta 3-1 pulls gently on the controls. His Interceptor responds like an extension of himself. His wingmen follow suit and come around. "Delta 3 wing, lock on to those probes, make your shots count. Watch out for that fire though. I know this is routine, but let's not make any mistakes." As he comes about, he centers a probe droid in his targeting sensor. He unleashes a blast of green fire at the probe. The bolts find their mark resulting in an explosion, "Hah..." The trio ties following Gamma Lead also fire off their laser cannons at the droid. The droid explodes in a brillant orange ball "Nice shooting Gamma wing." The ties dip and juke to avoid the bolts of blue and red energy flying through space. The pilot of Gamma I locks onto a new probe droid "Gamma's form up and attack my target." Gamma 3 wing falls in behind a one of the probe droids and matches it's speed. The droid changes direction and begins flying directly towards the star destroyer. The four TIEs match it's vector and stay in the zone, "OK boys, it's moving into the Jade's prime fire zone. Watch those bolts and stay on my tail." Gamma 3 dodges a salvo of ion bolts and opens fire on the droid. It disappears into a shower of sparks. "Good Shot wing leader". The ships change course and zone in on a new probe droid. The Captain turns back to the forward viewport to watch probe droids explode in a brilliant flashes of light. "Excellent." He mutters to himself, placing his hands behind his back. He turns his waist, "Cease fire of all batteries. Recall the remaining probe droids, congradulate the pilots and have them lower their weapon strength to twenty percent. Split the fighters into an even 50-50 and assign leaders. Have them fight themselves." He pauses and turns back, "Oh, and remind them not to run into each other." "Two probe droids have been neutralized, Captain Redlin." Mirden declares, a bit of disappointment in his voice. He had been hoping to make it a bit harder on the TIE pilots, but they were good at their job, regardless. He listens intently to the orders, nodding and replying, "Yes Captain." The Crewman flicks on the switch for the weapons battery frequencies and declares, "All batteries cease fire, I repeat, all batteries cease fire." Before he is even done speaking the vacuum of space reclaims it's deadly quiet, the glowing hot bolts ceasing almost instantly. He flips a few switches which commands the probe droids to return to the hangar. He then speaks into his headset to the TIE pilots, "TIE's, split up half and half, assign leaders, you're going to be dogfighting each other." "Delta Squadron, form up on me again. Lets show Gamma what we're made of," Drake says sharply. He takes his right hand off his stick, moving it to a dial and turning it to lower his laser cannons strength. Turning his fighter toward Gamma Squadron, his flightmates turn with him, keeping in a triangular formation around him. The pilot of Gamma lead smiles a bit and says "Gamma's you heard the man. Lower cannon intensity and engage Delta squadron." The pilot of Gamma lead tones down his cannons and then makes a sharp bank with his fighter the rest of Gamma flight flying in an offset V behind him. Delta 3 and his wingmen all adjust their cannon strength. Moving as one, the group of TIE fighters come around again to square up on Gamma Squadron "Here we go, boys. This is it...now the fun begins." The four interceptors of Gamma 3 make the proper adjustments to their weapons, "OK boys, attack pattern theta" The four ships assume a diamond formation and dive in below one of the Delta squarons, "OK, wingmen stay with your leaders...stay calm and remember your training." The fighters of Gamma Leads squadron form up and over the com is heard "Gamma wing fire at Delta Lead Wing on my mark." the pilot of Gamma Lead tracks Delta Leads fighter in his targeting Reticule and squeezes the trigger gently letting 4 bolts of green energy fly. His wingmen follow suit, filling the dark of space with green energy. "Delta 3 wing, let's not give them anything to shoot at. Stay with me, but stay loose. These guys aren't probe droids. Follow my lead and make your shots count." With yank of the controls and a scream of the engines, Delta 3 wingleader followed tightly by his wingmen take off toward Gamma Squadron's third group. Maneuvering quickly through space, the group fires. Green bolts of light flash toward Gamma 3. Green bolt slam into Gamma 3's wingleader, causing it to drop out of attack speed. The three remaining ships take evasion action, "OK Gamma 3...Zero's out...reform on my position" Gamma 3-2 has assumed command and the other two form up on it. They perform a barrel roll and attempt to get in behind one of the delta wings. Drake watches as a laser blast hits his wing, though not doing anything. "Nice Shooting Gamma Leader," he says, being a good sport. Tightening his grip on his steering stick, he pulls the trigger and fires at Gamma Leader, letting lose four green laser bolts. The laser bolts from Delta Lead slam into the cockpit of Gamma leader. The tie begins a lazy spin as the ship becomes disabled. Over the com the Gamma Leader calls "Not good enought Delta Lead. Nice shooting."